Chernobyl
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Chernobyl area. Taken from the Russian Mir space station in 1997 |
Chernobyl (
Ukrainian:
Chornobyl (Чорнобиль),
Russian Chernobyl (Чернобыль) was a city in northern
Ukraine, near the border with
Belarus (). It was a major communications node and important center of trade and commerce, especially in the
19th century. The city is located 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) south by south-east of the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which is notorious for the
Chernobyl disaster. Due to the actions of incompetent operators and the inherently unsafe
RBMK design, a reactor at the plant exploded on
April 26,
1986 at 01:23 AM (local time); as a result of the explosion and ensuing fire, clouds of
radioactive particles were released. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the city and other affected areas (including the cities
Prypiat and
Opachichi). Despite the fact that radiation is still being emitted from the nuclear disaster site, the 800-year-old city of Chernobyl survives, although barely. As of
2004, government workers still police the zone, trying to clean up radioactive material. Hundreds of people, mostly the elderly, have decided to live with the dangers and have returned to their homes in the zone's towns and villages. Their population was highest in 1987, when there were more than 1200 people. In 2003, there were about 300.
The city was named after the Ukrainian word for
mugwort (
Artemisia vulgaris), which is "chornobyl". The word is a combination of
chornyi (чорний,
black) and
byllia (билля,
grass blades or
stalks); hence it literally means
black grass or
black stalks -- though no parts of mugwort or wormwood are black. The plants are pale green, and wormwood has a whitish tinge from a fine fuzz on the bottom of its leaves.
On occasion, Chornobyl has been translated controversially to mean simply "
wormwood" (which most commonly refers to
Artemisia absinthium), with consequent
apocalyptic associations, that spread as far as Poland before
Serge Schmemann of the New York Times published "Chernobyl Fallout: Apocalyptic Tale", July 26, 1986. The article quoted an unnamed "prominent Russian writer" as claiming the Ukrainian word for wormwood was chernobyl.
In fact, there are over 160 kinds of
Artemisia, and the terminology is not generally accepted. Some sources refer to
Artemisia vulgaris as "common wormwood", while others claim that "common wormwood" is
Artemisia absinthium.
Wormwood is a different (but related) plant,
Artemisia absinthium, Полин (Polyn). "Polyn" has no English equivalent, but corresponds to the botanical genus
Artemisia. Botanically, mugwort is "Common Polyn" (Ukr. Полин звичайний); while wormwood is "Bitter Polyn" (Ukr. Полин гіркий).
Still more confusion comes from the fact that the word "wormwood" is used in the English text of the
Apocalypse, whose usage as the name of a plant does not necessarily match that of the original Greek.
Chernobyl bears poetic connotations in folklore, for a number of reasons. Its strong smell is evocative of the
steppe, as various species of
Artemisia are widespread there—though the town of Chornobyl is in the wooded and swampy Polissia region, quite far from the steppe. Chernobyl roots were used in folk medicine for deworming and to heal neurotic conditions, although an overdose could lead to neurological disorders, including memory loss. In Ukrainian folklore, it is used to banish the mischievous water nymphs called
rusalky.
The word "Chernobyl" is also sometimes used as slang to describe certain
nuclear installations, as well any grossly oversized or mis-shapen vegetable or fruit, jokingly implying that radiation affected its growth.
Chernobyl first appeared in a charter of
1193 described as a hunting-lodge of
knyaz Rostislavich. Some time later it was taken into the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where it became a crown village. The castle was built for defence against marauding
Tatars. In
1566, three years before the
Grand Duchy's rule, Ukrainian provinces were transferred to the
Kingdom of Poland and Chernobyl was granted in perpetuity to a Captain of the royal cavalry,
Filon Kmita, who thereafter styled himself
Kmita Czarnobylski. In due course, it passed by marriage to the
Sapiehas, and in
1703 to the
Chodkiewicz family. It was annexed by the
Russian Empire after the
Second Partition of Poland in
1793.
Chernobyl had a very rich
religious history. The
Jewish community, which formed an absolute majority, would probably have been imported by
Filon Kmita as agents and arendators (rent farmers) during the Polish campaign of colonisation. Later on, they would have included
Chasidim as well as
Orthodox Jews. The traditionally
Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian peasantry of the district was largely forced by Poland to the
Greek Catholic (Uniate) religion after
1596, and returned to
Russian Orthodoxy after Ukraine's unification with
Russia.
The
Dominican church and monastery were founded in
1626 by
Lukasz Sapieha, at the height of the
Counter-reformation. There was a group of
Old Catholics, who opposed the decrees of the
Council of Trent, just as the seventeenth century saw the arrival of a group of
Raskolniki, or "
Old Believers", from Russia. They all escaped the worst horrors of the
Chmielnicki Uprising of
1648-
54 (also known as
Polish-Cossack War) and those of
1768-
9, when one of the rebel leaders,
Bondarenko, was caught and brutally executed by
Jan Karol Chodkiewicz's
hussars.
The Dominican monastery was sequestrated in
1832, the church of the
Raskolniki in
1852. Since
1880, Chernobyl has seen many changes of fortune. In
1915, it was occupied by the
Germans, and in the ensuing
Russian Civil War, was fought over by
Bolsheviks,
Whites, and Ukrainians. In the
Polish-Soviet War of
1919-
20, it was taken first by the Polish Army and then by the Red Cavalry of the
Red Army. From
1921, it was incorporated into the
Ukrainian SSR, and experienced the mass killings of
Stalin's collectivisation campaign and
Holodomor. The
Polish population was deported during the
Frontier Clearances of
1936. The
Jewish community was killed by the
Nazis during the German occupation of
1941-
44. Twenty years later, it was chosen as the site of one of the first
Soviet nuclear power stations.
On
April 26 1986, the fourth reactor of the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located 14.5 km north-northwest of the city, exploded at 01:23 AM local time. All permanent residents were evacuated because
radiation levels in the area had become unsafe. See
Chernobyl disaster.
Chernobyl remains inhabited by a small number of residents who decided to return to their homes after the disaster, but the majority of the evacuated population now live in specially constructed towns such as
Slavutych. Many animals have been introduced into the town to promote the growth and success of the ecosystem there; some of these appear to be flourishing in the radioactive environment, whilst others appear to be affected adversely. There has been talk of turning the region into a
protected nature reserve.
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Pripyat, Ukraine*
Chernobyl disaster*
Zone of alienation*
Chernobyl2020*
Chernobyl Children's Project International*
Chernobyl Legacy, 20 years after.*
No humans, and the wildlife loves it...*
WikiSattelite view of Chernobyl area at WikiMapia*
Satellite images of Chernobyl area, Google Maps
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Chernobyl and Pripet Photos, Chernobyl Photos
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Photographs from town Chernobyl, Photos from town Chernobyl
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Nuclear Engineering International's Focus on Chernobyl page*
Chernobyl, Glasnost, and Disarmament, by Christian Nuenlist and Christopher Findlay
*
Hell on Earth The Guardian April 26, 2006
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The Eternal Winter New Statesman Special Report by Andrey Kurkov
*
The Exclusion Zone photographs by Dr. David McMillan
*
Chernobyl & Pripyat, 2006 Photos from Chernobyl & Pripyat
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Chernobyl: the unreadable sign Twenty years after Chernobyl, Belarussian writer Svetlana Alexievich talks to Sonja Zekri about the new face of evil and the lessons to be learned from the reactor catastrophe at signandsight.com.
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Annotated bibliography for Chernobyl from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issueshttp://www.kiddofspeed.com/
